Parents arrested when police bust drunken graduation party

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PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Two Pierce County parents were arrested last weekend when officers arrived at their home and found a garage strewn with beer cans and liquor bottles, an unconscious teen in a tent, and their own daughter passed out in her bed surrounded by pools of vomit, according to county officials.

Officers were tipped off to an "after-graduation underage drinking party" at an east Pierce County home early Sunday and served a search warrant at the house a short time later.

After calling medics for the 18-year-old passed out in a tent next to a beer cooler and the young woman found unresponsive in her own vomit, officers arrested 32 people on suspicion of being minors in possession. Most of the arrested youths were students at Emerald Ridge High School and Puyallup High School.

Officers also arrested four youths in a car outside the house for allegedly having a large amount of marijuana they had been selling at the party.

The parents of the passed-out teen were arrested for allegedly allowing illegal drinking in their home. They told officers their daughter had assured them the party would be alcohol-free.

“You’d think parents would rethink their ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy when it comes to alcohol use, especially during prom and graduation season,” Puyallup Police Sgt. Bob Thompson said in a press release.

As part of Pierce County's Party Intervention Patrol program, parent volunteers met with the parents of the arrested youths when they came to pick up their kids to talk to them about keeping their kids safe by closely monitoring their nighttime activities and asking for details of their alcohol-free plans.